Discuss - Ep #0479

[Watching Project]

Robservations #479

And if you'd care to look back, the first WP discussion topic for this ep:

Re: Discuss - Ep #0479

[DarkLady]

In the first scene, Jeff is wearing a blue shirt.

Vicki comes to the House by the Sea and is practically in tears as she tells Lang that if she loses Jeff, she'll lose everything. As he eavesdrops, Barnabas looks very sad (nice bit by JF) as he learns all over again the price of being human--and that losing the strength of a thousand (plus that pallid makeup and industrial-strength eyeliner) may be the least of it. As he listens to Vicki’s pleading and weeping, his heart is pierced with pity. He gazes down at the unconscious Jeff for a moment, then picks up a scalpel and cuts the straps. Sarah would be proud!

Best line in this ep: Barnabas explains to Jeff that he's free. Not right now, I'm busy! Jeff snaps.

But Lang comes back after shooing Vicki off and injects poor Jeff again. Barnabas picks up the phone to call Julia, but Lang takes a gun out of a desk drawer. Barnabas is sure nothing will happen if Lang shoots him, but Lang replies, A melancholy aspect of your cure is that you are now vulnerable to death like any other man. You had better hang up the phone before I count to three….

[MagnusTrask]

With Jeff available, the "creature" should now not be needed.   Lang doesn't have to slice off Clark's head or face and attach it to the "creature".   Lang can now simply transfer Barnabas's consciousness into Clark's body.  Guess that hasn't occurred to Lang yet.   Lang is obsessed with the stitched-together thing he considers himself to have "created", so there's really nothing in it for him if he just does a Jeff-Barnabas bodyswap (presumably killing Jeff-in-Barnabas's-body afterward).   I guess.   A mind-switch should be a huge achievement in itself...  Again as with Julia's experiments, they're baffling, since neither doctor could ever reveal it to the world, and publish the findings.

Barnabas's big reformation and moral transformation happens in this episode.  It's not complete, but it's the biggest turning point.   I didn't really notice it the first time I saw it, since Mr. Frid utters the big line wrongly, saying there's a time when one must "cry enough", making it sound as if he thinks he ought to be crying more.   He says it again later, and then in my first viewing I got what was meant.   This time, says he must "... cry: 'Enough!'"   The confusion really lets all the air out of the scene.

Lang makes a weird case to Barnabas, for going ahead with the bodyswap... do it to save Vicki, since you'll destroy her if you revert.

[DarkLady]

With Jeff available, the "creature" should now not be needed.   Lang doesn't have to slice off Clark's head or face and attach it to the "creature".   Lang can now simply transfer Barnabas's consciousness into Clark's body.  Guess that hasn't occurred to Lang yet.   Lang is obsessed with the stitched-together thing he considers himself to have "created", so there's really nothing in it for him if he just does a Jeff-Barnabas bodyswap (presumably killing Jeff-in-Barnabas's-body afterward).   I guess.

Interesting idea--and true, of course. I suppose that if JF had decided to leave the show, that's how the writers would have made the switch work.

The idea that Barn's big reformation and moral transformation happens here hadn't occurred to me either. But I think you're right, MT. Barn actually risks his own life to save another's, which would also mean giving up the woman he loves. I guess it doesn't really get much more moral than that.

[tragic bat]

Barnabas's big reformation and moral transformation happens in this episode.  It's not complete, but it's the biggest turning point.   I didn't really notice it the first time I saw it, since Mr. Frid utters the big line wrongly, saying there's a time when one must "cry enough", making it sound as if he thinks he ought to be crying more.   He says it again later, and then in my first viewing I got what was meant.   This time, says he must "... cry: 'Enough!'"   The confusion really lets all the air out of the scene.

[spoiler]I don't know about that, isn't it just next episode when he pleads with Julia to just take "one more life!"?  And then he also wants to kidnap maggie again to use her for the experiment, possibly kill her if she talks too much...  Not to mention the deplorable way he treats Adam.  In my opinion it's not until the next storyline (Quentin's ghost, Chris...) that he finally stops being a self-centered prick and really cares about other people even if he doesn't want to sleep with them. [/spoiler]

[MagnusTrask]

"Transformation" and "reformation" aren't the right words, are they....  as I said, it's gradual.   This is still the one specific moment where he decides for the first time that there's such a thing for him as a moral line beyond which he won't go, anymore.   You can't doubt that he means it when he says it, and modern Barnabas never thought or said it before.   He does waver and fall off the wagon, but as I recall, the killings do stop until he's [spoiler]a vampire again.   And even then, he fights his vampire nature pretty well.

He is about to tell Julia it's alright to take just one more life, but that's either clumsy writing, or he can't mean it.   Jeff Clark was "just one more life", with nothing special about him other than that.   With some other random person on the table, it would be the exact same situation, and Barnabas would have to stop it again.

I think Barnabas showed enormous patience with Adam, considering he was a vicious blood-sucking maniac until this point.   The convenient thing would have been to kill Adam right away, which he wanted to do, but let himself be talked out of.  Compare this to the Woodard situation.

For us, he's not too moral, but compared to what he was, it's almost a shocking reformation, even if he needs a good push now and then.[/spoiler]

[DarkLady]

All true, plus he [spoiler]never stops taking advantage of Julia's devotion. Ever.[/spoiler] But this is sort of a good start. We none of us are all good all the time, and we don't have vampirism as an excuse--at least as far as I know, none of us do. 

[MagnusTrask]

[spoiler]Well DL, I'm not sure what constitutes taking advantage, here.   Perhaps he's seen by some as taking advantage by accepting her help when not in love with her, as she wants him to be.  It's an uncomfortable situation in which I'm not sure there are any proper solutions.   Sending her away because he's not in love with her could be cruel.   He does feel a deep friendship for her, though, and I think friendship is very much under-rated.   I think that there is mutual devotion and loyalty.   It's hard to turn away help when it's very much needed, when lives are at stake.  Julia's motive is often saving lives I think, not just helping Barnabas.   He returns the help often.

Women DS fans will sometimes say that Barnabas is clueless regarding Julia's love and devotion to him.   He may be perfectly aware of it, and early on he has mentioned it, in the lab with Lang is one instance.   I'm not sure how he could show fans the awareness they think he lacks, except by "switching on" romantic love for Julia when, for whatever reasons, it just happens not to exist.  Is that possible?

I'm going beyond anything you brought up DL, but all this has been rolling around in my head for awhile, and I thought I'd say it.[/spoiler]

[Mysterious Benefactor]

[spoiler]Barnabas doesn't simply accept Julia's help. In fact, far too often he manipulates her against her better judgment into helping him or coming over to his POV when Julia's POV is clearly the rational one and his is not. He does the same to Willie as well, particularly in the scene I've already referenced from Ep #560.

And as far as Julia goes, there is actually a classic and extremely telling exchange with Barnabas coming up in Ep #481:

JULIA: You always win, don't you, Barnabas?

BARNABAS: We can always checkmate each other, Julia.

JULIA: No. No. You stop me, though, though I seldom stop you.

And that is a situation that isn't simply true in Ep #481 - it's true of their relationship throughout the series. In fact, one perfect and far distant storlylinewise example will occur in 1970PT with regard to Roxanne. (But then, as has often been said, in that instance it's more than clear that Barnabas doesn't think with the head on his shoulders.    Whereas Julia certainly doesn't have that problem in the situation.)[/spoiler]

[DarkLady]

True. I don't think I need to mark it as a spoiler when I say that Barn too often thinks with his, um, fangs. 

[tragic bat]

Yes,

[spoiler]Barnabas insisted that they couldn't kill Roxanne because she was "so beautiful."  And this was right after Julia had killed her double, Ms. Hoffman, who Barnabas rubbed in Julia's face that she was obviously not beautiful enough to be kept alive.  Meanwhile Willie, Carolyn, Elizabeth and Roger all died to extend Roxanne's life by just a few weeks so Barn could bite her.

He never really reformed completely, but I still hold that it was after 1968 when he expressed genuine care for Chris and the children that he exhibited growth.  Wanting to murder your child and lock him in a cell without bothering to teach him how to speak and read is totally pathological. [/spoiler]

[Joeytrom]

[spoiler] In 1897, Barnabas doesn't seem to care how he ruins the lives of others and causing history to change because of it.  Other then Quentin & Jamison,  he could care less about the other people.  When first watching 1897 and his killing of Carl and being responsible directly/indirectly for the deaths of Dirk, Sandor, Rachael, &  Pansy, I was afraid he would kill Nora when one episode ended with her seeing him about to attack someone as a vampire.  Before the next episode aired the next day, I was nervously wondering what he he was going to do to her. ] [/spoiler]

When watching that particular episode for the first time (with Nora), did anyone else think he would do something as he did the others?

[alwaysdavid]

Barnabas learns that Vickie really loves Jeff. She really does and appears despite his usual bent towards obsession at all costs decides to let Jeff live.  I was wondering also why Lang just didn't use a whole body and fashion a new face. Surely he has heard of plastic surgery. Powell turns on just appears to be reading a teleprompter off screen or maybe someone is feeding him his lines. Then he and Frid get into a shouting and missed lines match. 

[dom]

So JClark doesn’t die, eh? Too bad. Though if JC becomes the monster and then kills Lang, that would be fab. I won’t hold my breath. Geez, Lang’s new best friend (Barnabas) is a big pain in his ass, eh? Barn has a brief moment of humanity and has a change of heart regarding using JC’s face for the experiment. But Lang changes Barn’s mind back. Vicki shows up looking for JC and pleads for Lang’s concern. Barn hears this and sets JC free. Hooray! Good Barn is back. Lang of course is furious. JC wakes up and thinks he is in a production of West Side Story. Oh My Goodness, is this one of the worst acting segments this show has ever produced? Frid must have gone home and cried. If he wrote home to mother I do hope that letter will be shared, lol.
 
Barn: Listen to me Jeff!
JC: In a minute, I’m busy right now!” (ROTFLMFAO!!!)
 
Dear Lord, even JC is double-speaking. And Powell tops himself by triple-speaking. Oh yeah, this has got to be the worst ‘acting’ episode since the show’s start. And I imagine in the top five of the ‘worst of’ in the show’s five-year run. No one can remember their lines, even while reading the teleprompter, lol. The last scene was so bad that it was wonderful.
 
Afterthought: Love the flimsy wall in the lab. There was a missing moment during Barn’s opening scene. Is this glitch on the DVD too?

[MagnusTrask]

Barn: Listen to me Jeff!
JC: In a minute, I’m busy right now!” (ROTFLMFAO!!!)

A good line, but I had to imagine it with better acting in order to find it funny.  Davis just sort of gets the line said, without the sharp or pointed delivery that it needed.   RD may not have seen it as a joke line.